There is confusion in rap right now. The story centers around Nas and a mysterious character named Your Old Droog. Droog is currently faceless, but not voiceless as his self-titled EP is drawing strong comparisons to Nas. So strong that many are suggesting Droog is Nas’ alter ego*.

For the record, eskay says he’s met Your Old Droog before. eskay’s a pretty believable guy. One of the guys at Complex claims he’s met guy before, too, and that it’s not God’s Son. Others have chimed in as well. The catch is no one can really recall anything distinctive about the guy but, as a writer who meets a lot of rappers, I can attest these rappers do all tend to blend together and become faces in the crowd when you meet them at an event or whatever and they hit you with the “please listen to my demo” deal.

Even with those confirmations, it was too late. The internuts had already swung into action with their conspiracy theory that Your Old Droog is Nasir. A Twitter search says most people are pretty sure it’s Nas but that doesn’t mean much considering Twitter kills Morgan Freeman every six months. reddit’s got their research going as does Rap Genius’ forum. As many have pointed out, Mass Appeal helped bring Droog to the public back in April. Mass Appeal’s owned by Nas. I even saw a cool etymology breakdown on reddit that I, as a student of words, found entertaining.

— Droog means friend in Russian. You Old Droog = Your Old Friend.

— Also appeared as Your Imaginary Droog / Your Imaginary Friend.

Then there’s the usual where the everyone cites something so many times that it becomes “fact” on the ‘net and in Droog’s case they’re repeatedly pointing out him referencing a Nardwuar interview, talks about divorcing a singer and other supposed key points. Others have taken to adjusting the pitch on certain songs to show similarities between both artists’ voices.

But through all of this, it begs to ask why would Nas release a project under anything that his own name? Contractual issues? Artistic freedom? The chance to experiment with a new sound? Well, when most artists do take an alternate route, they change their sound. That’s not the case with Your Old Droog’s material since we’re saying it sounds like classic Nasty Nas.

Which leads us to what it all comes down to – the music. Whoever the person is rhyming on the Your Old Droog EP does sound eerily close to Nas. The whole sound of his voice, the rhyme styles and, yes, the references do sound Little Homey-like. A lot. As far as lyrical clues go, he drops the line saying his debut is “as sick as Illmatic” on “Loosey in the Store With Pennies.” Yesterday, another, specific line caught my ear.

“Get gone you poor peasant, you speak scammin
Now I no longer go to Western Union to Moneygram,
I get money off the grammar…”

What stuck out was how familiar references like Moneygram and pulling scams were to early Nas material pop up. Who else uses and scams using Western Union minus cats from the ’90s? Obviously, it’s not anything scientific and more about intrinsic value. Call it a hunch and another log onto the conspiracy fire. There are tons of these small bits that make the whole “it’s Nas” theory seem plausible.

David said the telltale sign would be the production. If the beats were wack, we’d know it was Nas. Fact is the beats are far from wack. They’re warm and inviting. They’re gritty in an old New York way. They’re pleasant enough to lull the ears into comfort, leading you to listen to all 10 songs and then let them play again on repeat.

So, is Nas pulling a Verbal Kent/Keyser Soze move? I can’t call it. What I can say that it’s a really good listen, which is really all that matters to me honestly. If it is Nas, that’s cool because I just downloaded a free album with no worry or guilt about swiping it. If it isn’t Nas, DJ Premier needs to snatch Your Old Droog up ASAP and get him in the studio to make the next Illmatic.

It’s Nas. Or this is the greatest forgery in the history of art. I actually hope Nas never claims it and “droog” is never exposed either. This has that Mona Lisa mystique. Is she smiling/is Nas rhyming?

Idk man. I listened to a song and a half. Sounds like a dude trying to be like Nas rather than Nas himself. Shit sounded on point though. The main thing here should be why dude picked a terrible name like Your Old Droog.

There were apparently a few videos featuring him as Imaginary Droog from last year but they’ve all been wiped from the internet except for a few screen grabs. He’s supposedly a kid from Coney Island. I think they might just be playing up the Nas theories to get more attention on the project.

The only reason to not think this is Nas is that it’s so dope and I think Nas’ ego is such that if this were part of his Lost Tapes series, he’d drop it under his name just to ad to his legacy. if this were some Childish Gambino awkward Black boy introspective ish, I could see Nas shying from dropping it under his name, but…

I read that this guy is Imaginary Droog and is different than Your Old Droog but I think that’s because people want to think that this is Nasir. It all looks very planned like it is Nas connecting all the dots. Is Skizz in Premier’s camp? I feel like this has been a well thought out plan. The reddit post suggests they got Droog from A Clockwork Orange because that’s the slang they use for the word friend and AZ’s label is ClockworkMusic. They think Nas is a free agent and this is his way of being on AZ’s label. It only makes sense because Gotty does suggest contractual issues so it could be Nas way of getting something out under a diff label. Maybe I’ve just looked way too much into this…

@KC I’m just guessing based on reasons why artist will sometimes change their name to record. one of them is usually b/c someone else owns their name (remember, Buck lost his name for a while there) or they have label obligations they’re trying to skirt.

I don’t know, certain little things make me doubt that this is Nas, but then it could be him trying to fuck with us, but Nas doesn’t strike me as the type to do that. Either way, this is dope. Sidenote: People still on that Action Bronson = Ghostface thing, Come on now. listen enough to both, you find out that they sound NOTHING alike, vocally or stylistically.

Bronzalino definitely sounded like GFK when he started, to the point where I got the two mixed up when they were alongside each other on “Meteor Hammer”. But AB hasn’t sounded like Ghost at all since Dr. Lecter.

If it’s Nas then that’s just the dopest shit ever! If it’s not then this kid needs to be signed! I haven’t been excited about rap music in a long time but this shit right here is just some of the best music I’ve heard in a while.

This EP is fire. If I was this rapper, you best believe I would want all the credit for this. Forget all that is it Nas or not stuff. Which leads me to believe it is Nas, you don’t grind and put something dope out just to let someone else be credited for it.

He sounds a lot like Nas, but it can’t be him! I’m thinking Loosey in the store w/ pennies sounded the most like Nasir, it’s just something about his voice is slightly different from Nas. Nas ain’t gettin any younger, if I were him I’d want credit for doing something great like this.